Xolo Pass

Xolos 1-0 Millonarios, Tijuana is victorious in debut

The team is looking to go all the way in the tournament

Courtesy El Espectador de Colombia.

by Manuel R. Medina

February 20 2013

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BOGOTA, COLUMBIA. – Club Tijuana Xolitzcuintles de Caliente had a successful and historic debut in the Copa Libertadores tournament of America, after pulling of a victory against Club Deportivo Millonarios from Columbia.

The match was played in front of a spectacular crowd at the Nemesio Camacho Stadium “The Campin” which is located in the capital of Columbia. This game kicked off the action from Group 5 of the tournament which this match was only the first leg.

Here is how the game went.

Xolos jumped onto the field with a 4-4-2 formation with Cirilo Saucedo as goalie: Edgar Castillo, Juan Carlos Núñez, Javier Gandolfi and Pablo Cesar Aguilar all on defense. Cristian Pellerano, Joe Corona, Leandro Augusto and surprisingly Richard Ruiz all played at midfield. As forwards were only Fidel Martinez and Duvier Riascos.

Throughout the first couple of minutes of the match, Millonarios tried to play a long ball type of game with long passes, in an effort to try to break up the good defense line of Xolos and surprise the goalie Cirilo Saucedo.

In the second half of the match, the changes that the Xolos head coach Antonio Mohamed made, worked. Edgar Castillo launched a great pass from the left side of the field to the right, where Richard Ruiz was able to receive the ball and control it with his chest and took a shot at goal and scored.

The red and black squad then made some changes to strengthen their defense, where both Josh Abrego and Daniel Martinez were put into the game to help out on defense so that the team could have a better balance.

The Columbian team tried to put some pressure towards the end of the match to try to tie the game, but there wasn’t enough time left to try to make this happen, and Xolos would walk away with a win. The Panamanian player Roman Torres was also ejected towards the end of the game.

Tomorrow the world champions from Brazil, SC Corinthians Paulista, will be playing against the club San Jose Oruro. This match will conclude all of the action from group 5 of this tournament in this first round of the Copa Libertadores.